Newly promoted Nigerian Navy officers have been advised to always protect civilians in the course of their duties and shun fraternity with criminal minded persons.
The advice was given by the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Western Naval Command (WNC) Rear Admiral Sylvanus Abbah at the weekend at the decoration of 17 officers attached to the command with their new ranks.
Among the decorated officers were the command’s Information Officer, Commanders Chinwe Umar and Barivure Firima.
Abbah, who reminded them of their call to service to the nation, stated that the navy would not hesistate to dismiss anyone found to have painted it in bad light.
He said: “There are so many criminals around us. You are not to fraternise with them. Try to expose them and make way for the innocent citizen of this nation to live in peace.
“Remember you murder your sleep to make sure the citizens sleep well because you are a happy man when there is peace in the country.
“When there is no guaranteed peace for people to operate peacefully then you are failing in your calling as a professional soldier.
“Before now, the threat we used to have as a nation was the threat around the area of Bakassi but now there is no part of the country that you don’t have one form of crisis or the other.
“You know the hope of the nation lies on the military, so you must defend this nation by land, air and sea, which is why we are defending at the sea and wearing white.
“So for you to be considered worthy of this promotion just know that much is expected of you.”
On containing illegalities in the maritime domain, Abbah said: “If you look around you will see that most of our facilities are undergoing repairs especially the jetty. Most of our capital ships are at sea already and the one in Lagos area are ever ready to arrest and deter whatever actions the criminals want to carry out.
“Also remember to keep a ship at sea is not an ordinary venture, that is why we have the falcon eye and Regional Maritime Awareness Centre to be able to monitor what is happening at sea.”